The present invention is directed to machines for laying asphalt paving material and, more particularly, to a machine for repairing potholes in paved road surfaces.
Machines for repairing potholes are known in the art; however, most known pothole repair machines, such as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,788, issued to Leslie Huliesko on Jul. 21, 1992; in U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,210, issued to Jerome Lemelson on Mar. 15, 1994; and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,782, issued to Leslie Huliesko on May 19, 1998, are designed to dispense a cold patch material in which the asphalt paving material is combined with an emulsion to provide a plastic paving material that will harden when placed into the environment. Such cold patch asphalt paving material is typically utilized in cold weather installations and suffers from the limitation of not being able to bond with the existing adjacent, contiguous paving material to enable the patch material to remain in place. Thus, pothole repairs accomplished in this manner are often temporary.
One approach often taken to attempt to prolong the life of a cold patch pothole repair is to spray a coating of tack material into the open pothole before dispensing the cold patch asphalt material into the pothole. The tack coat is conventional in the art of repairing potholes, as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,626, issued to Jack McKay on Dec. 10, 1985, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,949, issued to Gifford Gabriel on Aug. 5, 1980, in which the tack coat (or bonding agent) is sprayed into the pothole before the introduction of the cold patch material in an effort to make the cold patch material adhere to the bottom and sides of the pothole.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,695, issued to Gulertan Vural on Oct. 19, 1999, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,626, (McKay), the pothole repair machine is provided with a heating apparatus to heat the pothole and surrounding asphalt material primarily to remove excess material from the hole and from the surface of the roadway surrounding the pothole. Furthermore, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,695 (Vural) the process undertaken in the machine is to overfill the pothole and compact the filling material to a level higher than the surrounding roadway, whereupon the machine utilizes a vertically adjustable doctor blade to remove the excess filling material following which the filling material is again compacted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,969, issued to James Blaha, et al on Aug. 2, 1994, discloses a self-propelled pothole repair machine in which the potholes can be repaired with hot mix asphalt filling material. The Blaha machine includes an insulated hood formed by an assembly of retractable doors to control the ambient temperature around the pothole during the repair process. The Blaha machine further includes a device for enlarging and making the shape and size of the pothole uniform before the filing material is added to the pothole for repair thereof. A portable cart for repairing potholes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,806, issued to Harold Dillingham on Aug. 27, 2002, in which the process utilizes hot mix filling material to repair potholes. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,474, issued to David Nolan on May 2, 2000, a mechanism for controlling the height of a strike-off plate on an asphalt paver in response to the pitch angle of the screed is disclosed.
Such prior art pothole repair machines have not been configured to provide an efficiently operable and economically affordable system for the consistent repair of potholes. The Blaha machine, for example, is a large cumbersome apparatus in which the process is attempted to be automated. The Dillingham cart, on the other hand, is too small to be efficient in the repair of a large quantity of potholes. Cold patch pothole repair machines cannot provide a lasting repair, even with the utilization of a tack coat before the filling material is added to the pothole. Potholes are not formed in a regular uniform manner and uniformity cannot be relied upon in formulating a process to effect their repair. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a pothole repair machine that would be consistently and effectively operable to repair potholes, resulting in a repair that becomes consistent with the surrounding surface of the roadway.